Welcome to Bayocean Episode 1
Play report on a new LIMINAL HORROR mini-series of dirtbag teens in a weird costal town vs a slasher
My Sunday game group finally got back together and decided to venture into Bayocean county. Inspired by Trevor’s musings, I threw together a map and built a scenario that has been tumbling around in my mind for a while (recursion slasher).
With touchstones of The Loop, The Fear Street Trilogy, Negative Space, It Follows, Night of the Creeps, The Fog, we were set on a path toward seeing if our dirtbag teens would make it through the night.
Using: LIMINAL HORROR system (digital pdf, website, in print)
Setup
Bayocean, the town that didn’t sink into the ocean, but maybe it should have. Bayocean, a fictitious (ish) city on Oregon coast. pretty big, with coast, city, suburbs, woods. odd things happen there. lots of disappearances and death and murders. lots of spooky stories and warnings from adults for caution. no concrete evidence has ever been put forward (at least not publicly).
Characters
Since this was very much a collection of notes and musings, I drafted some guiding questions to help prime the pump:
What movie would you have lifted from a video store?
What would be on your MySpace page? (Images, hobby, music)
What note is on the file in your guidance councilors office?
Has anything you’ve done made it into the neighborhood watches “minutes”
Whats the worst thing you’ve ever been caught for? What’s the worst thing you haven’t been caught for?
What’s one secret only your friends know? What’s the thing not even they know.
What’s your dream for after you graduate? Do you think its attainable? What’s your biggest obstacle?
What groups of kids are you “cool” with? Which have issues with you?
Who’d play them in the miniseries (can choose an older actor and just say them at 17)
Leif O'Leary (Adam) - works at Super Sub, sells drug laced chicken tenders, in debt to some bad people.
Nigel Silverthorn (Logan) - skater/filmmaker, never goes to school.
Ari Tanker (Zach) punk, loves all things chains.
Cody Miller (Trevor) loves to break things, Mr. Trash can through a window.
Skitter (NPC) a skater friend, has earned his name.
Acid Man (NPC) neon blue hair. Unclear how old he is. Is always just around.
A little B&E in a haunted house
Leif, unbeknownst to his group of friends, is in dire need of funds. Ted of Lazerz Arcade has a lead on an abandoned house of a dead man. The promise of an easy score is too much to pass up.
The scene starts with Leif pulling out a pocket knife to attempt to pick the lock right as Cody throwing a trashcan through the front window as Ari uses a bike chain to smash a completely different window.
The gang heads into the well furnished home. Leif searches the kitchen for expensive equipment as Nigel, Cody and Ari go into the basement to look at the dead man’s collection.
Nigel was ever filming in hopes of getting killer footage ( it’s worth noting that he has yet to figure out how to take off the fisheye lens).
In the basement, Ari takes books off the shelf and shakes them to see if they have a hidden internal compartment. As they turn the overhead lights on they see that there are a few tables in the center of the room that have glass cases. Inside them are: a small glass vial, an ornate knife and a pendant (with sliver chain).
On the main floor Acid Man & Skitter see that there is power and decide to test each of the vhs tapes in order to see if there was any pornos. Leif decided to check out if there was anything of value on the top floor.
Below, the executive functioning challenged group downstairs decides to get their hands on the cool things in the glass cases. Ari liberates the pendant with his bike chain (he is much more interested in the chain it’s attached to as it is some prime artifact shit), Nigel uses his skateboard to get the the vial of metallic liquid, as Cody gets his hands on that definitely not cursed knife.
On the top floor Leif sees a car approaching! He stuffs anything of value into his bag and yells to the others to get out. Everyone skitters out of the house except Acid Man. The gang runs into the tree line.
The car skids to a stop as a large figure rushes out of the door (leaving the car on). Grabbing something out of the front seat the massive figure stomps into the house (the basement lights and tv illuminates the broken window in the front room).
Leif rushes to get the car as Cody runs to create a diversion (he shop puts a massive rock onto the windshield. A scream/yell/sound bellows from the house as Cody rushes away. His good deed done for the day.
The gang drives away, loot in tow, hoping that Acid Man makes it out.
The Quarry…or do wanna see a dead body?
The crew makes their way to the quarry since no one really comes around there much any more, ever since that boy died last summer. They say he drowned but like most things in this town what actually happened is less clear.
A collection of abandoned lazy-boys, broken lawn furniture, and futons acts as a makeshift hangout. With the shitty honda accord’s headlights illuminating space, they build a bonfire and look over what they stole.
Leif has an leather bound tome who’s early pages have diagrams/calligraphy and latter pages have scratchy diary entries. He finds an entry on the locket. A bare bones descriptions of where it was found, the weather, etc. What is odd is it has multiple entries, years apart.
At this point they hear a whistling approaching from down the road. Nigel’s camera has night vision but its no where near good enough to see what is coming their way.
Officially spooked, the gang decides the put the fire out and head back into town.
As they drive slowly down the road they see a massive figure walking up it’s center (too far to see clearly from this distance).
Three car lengths away it becomes clear that the figure heading toward them is the same massive figure that entered the house. It is covered in blood and dragging something behind it.
Leif hits the gas and rides up on the embankment. As they pass the figure it swings what it is dragging (the smashed corpse of Acid Man) at the car, smashing the drivers side windows and splattering them with blood. Nigel catches the whole thing on camera as they speed away.
Frank & Steins: glizzies, physical evidence and a video tape
The main road has a white Subaru drive past as Leif turns and heads at a moderate speed to Frank & Steins hotdog stand.
Pulling in to the parking lot they head to the darkest part of the lot, near the water. Cody uses a Styrofoam cup to try and wash some of the blood off the doors (he gets roughly 14% of it off). Not used to putting in a lot of effort, the group calls the cleaning “good enough” and goes to get hotdogs and review the footage.
If watching what happened on the dark road, seeing the mangled body of Acid Man used as a projectile weapon, what they notice about the figure is much more unsettling.
The fisheye lens definitely wasn’t a help, but underneath all the blood are ribbons of flesh hanging off the figure, flayed in some manner. After playing it a few times Nigel feels like he sees something play across it’s face, but the quality just isn’t enough to be conclusive. What he can see is that the mouth hangs open, but the whistling is still audible.
With tummies full of processed meats they decide to put the pressure on Ted to see why they were thrown into this mess.
Nothing good happens during a traffic stop
As the gang heads off into the dark road toward town, red and blue lights flash in their rearview.
Being pulled over with blood and flesh splattering your vehicle is not a good look.
The cars pull to a stop as the high beam shines on their car.
“Get out of the car now!” Leif decides to step out as the driver as they hand-crank the windows down (to marginal success…but through physical force they get it mostly down).
“All of you, OUT NOW!”
Piling out of the car they see Troy, former bully turned officer bully.
“Step back and turn away, with your hands up…There was a report of reckless driving and you dirtbags match the description.”
As he shines his light into the car it becomes clear he pulled them over to mess with them.
Something starts to quietly whistle as shadow passes past the headlights. The group tries to warn Troy but he’s riding high on his power trip berates them for making noise. Threats and bluster make him deaf to what is about to happen.
They turn just in time to see The Figure bring rebar (with concrete at the end) down onto Troy (making him a flesh water ballon).
Skitter takes the opportunity to break into a dead sprint toward town. Ari brings his chain on the hood to get The Figure’s attention, Nigel books it to the cop car, as Cody dives for Troy’s gun. In tandom, Leif uses pam & a lighter lay suppressing “fire” as Cody puts two into The Figure’s back. Inside the wound there seems to be something crawling through, but it is only for a moment.
Nigel drives past, the gang jumps in the car, and they leave Figure standing over the body of a police officer …next to Leif’s car.
Collateral Damage 3: The fall of Ted’s Lazer Arcade
Driving a stolen cop car the gang decides get to the bottom of why they were at that haunted house. Taking alley ways Nigel parks the patrol car a few blocks away and hides the shotgun in some bushes.
Ted, hanging behind the ticket counter, welcomes the gang. Leif presses him to meet in the back room.
Their dialogue descends to threats pretty quickly as Ted exclaims that his info said that the guy was dead but at least they got the good. Leif puts his pocket knife to Ted’s throat and Ari binds his hands. The only info they get is that two people named Kyle & Trish gave him the info on the score.
The gang searches the room, stealing money from Ted and taking his jade dragon embossed gun before realizing that some of the security cameras have gone out.
They try to sneak out (they unbind Ted first) but Ari knocks over a game cabinet when he hears the whistling.
If at first fire does not succeed, use bullets and a knife to the brainstem
They make their way to the Necropolis (abandoned housing development neighborhood) in hopes to find refuge away. Deep in the winding roads they find a mostly finished home they can set up in. Parking the cop car in the garage (and hiding it behind plywood) they make their way to the top floor to plan their next move.
It becomes clear that The Figure keeps finding its way to them. After much discussion they land on the fact that it is after the relics they stole. Searching the book they look at the entries for the knife (a massive description of how much the author hates spelunking) and the vial (a detailed description of an old woman named Haru).
As they pour over the text Ari notices a rash on his hand while examining his chain/pendant.
Throwing it on the ground it opens, revealing an image of a centipede devouring itself.
From off in the distance they hear a whistling upon the breeze. It is time to end this.
They set up a plan. Pouring gas on the first floor, they’ll attempt to lure the Figure up to the second floor (with the artifacts) and set it ablaze.
They pull the cop car across the street to wait for it to fall into their trap.
As the whistling gets louder they notice it seems to be coming for the car. Nigel, in a last ditch effort to make the plan work, runs into the house, leading The Figure to follow.
Running up the stairs, Nigel locks himself in the upper room and waits as the whistling approaches.
The Figure makes it to the door and starts to pound it down (knocking it out of its frame, its fist smashed into a pulp).
Nigel repels out the window on his kevlar rope as Cody lights the gasoline with the stolen cop road flares.
The whistling continues as smoke billows. The gang hears the whistling get quieter, eventually falling to the lower level.
Guns cocked and ready (police pistol, Ted’s pistol, police shotgun) they see the figure stumble out on its knees (fat and sinew rendered out, dripping onto the pavement). The gang unloads on The Figure. Ornate knife in hand, Cody stabs The Figure in the brain step. The whistling stops, the sun rises, the terror has been defeated. All is quiet in the Necropolis.
SpringBreak party in an isolated cove…what could go wrong.
Nigel heads home to save the footage, hide any crime (by intercutting it with b-side skate tricks) and catalogue what happened last night.
Ari & Cody head to school. They hear that Brock’s brother (Troy the deputy) was killed last night. People are tensed and stressed, and ready to party for spring break.
Leif hides out from his debtors, watching the news for any sign that he’s going to be blamed (despite all the coverage it seems like his involvement went undetected…which is weird because his car was at the scene of a crime).
That night they all meet at The Cove for the kick off to spring break. Ari, Cody, Nigel all are in the deeper part of The Cove, hanging out and drinking beers.
Leif tries to make some sales to come up with what he owes as he see’s Gunther (which is no good because he doesn’t have enough money to cover what he owes). The terror of debts coming quickly fades as Leif hears a familiar tune being whistled. His eyes turn to the mouth of the cave as a dimly lit Brock stands, staring straight at Leif.
Fade to black.
Episode two of Dirtbag teens vs a recursion slasher will happen a week from today.
Is this really a playthrough? It is well written. I felt I was reading a chapter in a novel.